With Care, Nursing Home Bridges Racial Gulf

Published: January 12, 1993

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Whatever the reasons, gaps in culture and communication translate into uncomfortable encounters. Frederick Blum, 69, said he was shocked when a nurse's aide asked him seriously if he had ever belonged to the Ku Klux Klan. Another aide asked Mr. Blum, a Navy pilot, how many black men he had killed in the service.

"They are very color-conscious," he said, referring to the workers who, he added, were generally tolerant of the home's more difficult patients. "They seemed to think we had a natural antipathy to black people." Overcoming Differences

But many residents and staff members have overcome their differences, a sharing that the home's administrators hope will flower during what they call their "sensitivity training" program.

Mrs. Kantor, for example, grew up in Manhattan, the daughter of Jewish immigrants, and as a young bride was horrified that a friend had eaten at an Italian person's house. Now she proudly shows off a strip of kente cloth, a present that a black employee brought her from West Africa. The deep green cloth hangs on her wall, near posters with Hebrew letters.

Mrs. Williams-Brown, 32, the nurse who was called "girl," said that in her eight years she has come to understand and respect the Jewish faith. Not long ago, she found herself in an odd position when the son of an Asian resident could not figure out why there were no visitors on Saturday, the Sabbath.

"The place was very quiet and I said, 'well, this is Saturday, this is a holy day so there is not going to be much activity,' " Mrs. Williams-Brown said. "It was strange for me as a black woman to be explaining bits and pieces of Jewish culture to a Chinese person."

While the classes for the staff continue, Mrs. Bryce-Richardson said the home has not yet settled on exactly how the residents will take part. The idea will be the same as the one in the classes for employees: that through knowledge, people will appreciate each other more and understand differences in religion, ideas about touching and how they prefer to be addressed.

Unlike the mandatory staff classes, those for residents will be voluntary and it remains to be seen how many will participate, given that the elderly may consider sickness and loneliness more pressing worries. Increasing Understanding

A number of residents said, however, that the program could at the least foster understanding, even if it does not start a revolution in race relations.

"We would get to know each other," said Morton Etsig, 85, and a former manager at S. Klein department stores. "You just can't pass a black man in the hall and say hello. You are not getting to know each other. You are just greeting each other."

Jacob Reingold, the home's executive vice president, said that the program was one of the home's top priorities, and that even on the small scale of the Hebrew Home, he sees little as important as improving race relations.

"One needs to be aware of it every day," Mr. Reingold said. "You can't take it for granted. It's like a happy marriage. You have to work at it every single day."

Photos: At the Hebrew Home for the Aged at Riverdale, a program has been established to help blacks and Jews exist side by side. Monica McGibbon, left, a nurse, checked on residents in the dining room. (Joyce Dopkeen/The New York Times) (pg. A1); Olive Williams-Brown, a nurse at the Hebrew Home who was repeatedly addressed as "girl," said that in her eight years there she had come to understand and respect the Jewish faith. She spoke with Mary Granofsky. (Joyce Dopkeen/The New York Times) (pg. B2)